5 Most Overused Social Media Jargons

If you keep up with social media news on a daily basis, you are likely warm to the subject I'm about to touch on. Overused social media terms: Never have I heard the same expressions used so many times, from people who, for the most part don't know what they are talking about, repeating the words used by social media pros like a parrot in a pet store. This won't be a rant about how much I hate some of these words, but more of an exploratory piece to understand the true meaning lying within some of these gray terms.

As a social media blogger, I'd be lying if I said I am not at fault. Because even I know I've used a lot of these terms and phrases in my daily writing. But for all you social media trendsetters out there, let's get some new words! Here are the 5 most overused social media jargons, counting down from 5.

5. "Authenticity"

I'm still a bit confused by what "be authentic" is supposed to mean. I understand in concept, it means that you should reflect your true colors to your community, but even that is still vague. We know that authenticity is something that successful tweeters have, and unsuccessful tweeters don't. Or maybe it's just the perception of authenticity.

Is taking picture of yourself strictly for social media that "authentic" anyways?

4. "Build a Community"

Do social media gurus actually have a tangible community that they are able to tap into at any time? My research suggests that it might not be that black and white. I think if the people re-tweeting and replying to your content on social media were told that their interaction with your brand is because you built a community, they wouldn't be thrilled.

3. "Tracking"

The root obsession with tracking social media comes from the fact that, social was largely un-trackable until a few years ago. So now that we actually know our social media metrics (impressions, CTR, etc‚A¶) many people are going gangbusters. It doesn't help that a new tracking tool comes on the market just about every day.

2. "Social ROI"

This came very close to taking the top spot as the most overused term. But the phrase itself is more tangible than our #1 choice, making it slightly more bearable. The root of this term likely comes from the fact there are so many factors influencing the return on investment that the term social ROI is searched a lot. It's low hanging fruit for SEOs and social media junkies that promise to give managers exact profit numbers for every minute spend on social media. It doesn't work like that, for the most part money shouldn't even be tied to your social media plan.

1. "Engage"

Yes you knew it was coming. The singlehanded most overused word in social media is engage. "Engagement", "engaging", "engage your followers," we now know that if you aren't "engaging" you are losing in the social media (SM) race. The word itself makes perfect sense, but it is so fluffy and takes into account so many different things that if someone were to say engagement to 100 different people they would have 100 different answers.

Now it’s your turn, what social media phrases rub you the wrong way? You can also checkout our blog post on the top 20 social media tools.

Matt Krautstrunk is an online marketer writing on topics ranging from social media to business security systems for Business.com.